Doubts over whether Government plan to block child abuse websites will have any impact

TONY EASTLEY: An online rights campaigner for less censorship on the internet believes the Government's decision to block child abuse sites is unlikely to prevent illegal content on the web.

However the Australian Christian Lobby insists more websites need to be controlled by authorities.

Martin Cuddihy reports.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: For the past five years Geordie Guy has been campaigning against internet censorship.

GEORDIE GUY: It's a little early in the morning for champagne just yet but I'll be up biding my time 'til the afternoon so that we can celebrate the end of five years of arguing.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Rather than installing a mandatory filter, the Government plans to use the Telecommunications Act to block hundreds of illegal web sites containing child abuse.

While celebrating the Government's back-down, Geordie Guy is certain the watered down changes won't have any impact.

GEORDIE GUY: Let's be quite clear; while this is a much better result than any of the previous proposals that the Government came up with, it's still really unlikely to do much at all.

The overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse material or any material which is likely to draw attention of the law isn't traded on the open web. It's all traded using programs that use different ways of communicating across the internet - usually the same sorts of programs that are used to trade movies or music.

JIM WALLACE: The Government needs to realise that this is a real problem for society.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: The Australian Christian Lobby's managing director Jim Wallace is accusing the Government of falling short of its commitment.

He insists the internet needs a mandatory filter and more than just child abuse websites should be blocked.

JIM WALLACE: There's a whole lot of material out there particular which links sex and violence which is refused classification and it's not something which is wholesome for a community.

And as well as that, pornography which depicts, generally depicts women as objects, should be something for which people opt in, just as we have to when we go to a shop to buy it. We should not have the stuff just coming through particularly to children.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: But Geordie Guy doesn't think censoring the internet is the answer.

GEORDIE GUY: This is not necessarily a win for child protection. It's not necessarily a win for any of the child advocacy groups or fairly extreme religious groups out there. It's just a bit of a win for common sense.

JIM WALLACE: We need it to be applied, not people to roll over in the face of internet civil libertarians who think that anything goes.

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